3/1/11
Detache bow exercises
Casorti Spiccato exercises

3/8/11
Casorti Spiccato exercises
I'm getting better; it's harder on the E and A strings than the D and G strings.

3/15/11
Kreutzer etude
Casorti Spiccato - I'm trying to work on the motion Joana told me I need - using my fingers without flopping them, and keeping my elbow up

3/25/11
Casorti Spiccato - moving on to E string, it's getting easier each time I do it. I'm building stamina in my bow arm!

Bow Techniques

4/6/11
E scale. I tend to shift too low on this one, but it REALLY REALLY helped to have the tuning note on during it. It was amazing how much better my intonation was, when I didn't even really notice it was off in the first place. Just the tiniest little differences from using the tuning note made a huge difference overall.

4/18/11
I just realized that I forgot that I was using a tuning note now. I did use the metronome, though! My right (bow) arm got really tired and started sort of cramping up during the spiccato, which was hard. I did 2 new Casorti exercises, which weren't to hard. The biggest obstacle is my bow arm stamina.

4/20/11
D scale. For some reason, in my mind, D came after E, although now I realize that I should have done the F scale. I don't know what's up with me today.
I also worked on Casorti exercises F and G and the little etude at the end of G. I'm almost done with all of the Casorti exercises.

4/26/11
C# scale with the other arpeggios. It is amazing how helpful the tuning note is; I used to always switch to either D or C at some point on the way up or down the arpeggio, but having the tuning note on, I stayed in the right key the whole time!
I did the last 2 Casorti exercises plus the little etude at the end of G and the BIG etude after that, slowly. My arm REALLY starts to hurt after a little while on the big etude, as well as my fingers (both hands). It will probably take a while to get it up to a quick tempo.
Violin Technique Video #1